


Playlists for Sidekicks

by outherenow



Series: Just another night when the lights on the street are your only company [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:28:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21776011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/outherenow/pseuds/outherenow
Summary: Darcy's view from saw things clearer, once you were in my rear view mirror, the first story in this series.
Relationships: Darcy Lewis/Tony Stark, Jane Foster & Darcy Lewis
Series: Just another night when the lights on the street are your only company [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1569325
Comments: 8
Kudos: 117





	1. Chapter 1

It starts like this:

Jane’s up on the rooftop of astrophysics laboratory in Tromsø contemplating the stars and her off and on again long distance relationship with Thor and actually taking a few minutes to relax away from her research. 

Darcy loves Jane, knows she’s the best damn boss she’s ever had or will have, and she’s ride or die with the tiny astrophysicist, but that doesn’t change the fact that sometimes their areas of interest really do not over lap at all. They occasionally like the same music, but Jane likes romantic movies and Darcy likes comedy, but it’s got to have a rockn’ soundtrack. It’s all about those tunes.  
Darcy’s horribly out of touch with the rest of the world since they returned to Tromsø a second time after London. She spends a lot of time crocheting hats and scarves and sweaters and basically bemoans the fact that she has no life. Loudly, to everyone who is listening, which is usually just Jane. Most nights she can’t sleep and when she does it’s to vivid images of the giant space robot in New Mexico or the Dark Elf invasion in London. 

It’s not Jane’s fault, it’s SHIELD. Both Jane and Darcy know it. They find cameras and recording devices, both simple and high-tech around the lab and their living quarters. The internet slows down on certain searches. Darcy thinks she can hack through some of the blocks, but both her and Jane bide their time because they know something bigger is happening, they just don’t have the data to figure it out yet. Or Thor around 24/7 to hide behind if something goes wrong. 

She’s taking advantage of Jane’s break from the lab to follow the news on a prepaid smartphone she had bought with cash in Heathrow airport after leaving London. If SHIELD knows about the phone, and Fury or Coulson gives them permission to show humor, then they’ve probably been laughing hysterically at Darcy’s attempts to keep it unmonitored. 

And if not? Well then, she’s got an unmonitored link to the outside world. 

And, boy oh, boy is the world in chaos right now. 

**-**

Thank god. And in this case, thank Thor that he was able to be reached by, insert Jane’s long winded explanation of science, them. Because when the data dump in Washington goes out every acronym on the planet knows where they are and Hydra masquerading as SHIELD has their hands on a good portion of Jane’s research. 

It’s surreal sitting in Jane’s mom’s flat, watching news cycles of people you’ve actually met before. Captain America and Black Widow had both filtered their way through New Mexico once or twice. And while Darcy thinks that SHIELD needed to be gutted and exposed, neither of the two Avengers involved seem to have much to say about keeping the innocent people involved, well, uninvolved. And Darcy has seen way too many spy movies to think this will end well for the average joe that used to push papers at SHIELD. Or to be completely honest, her. Darcy Lewis. Kinda in the crossfire too. Not a place she appreciates being. So even though Steve Roger’s is very pretty to look at, the underlying issues gain more of her attention. 

They leave London for Culver University soon after. Jane’s gotten even more paranoid in who has access to her research, and both Jane and Darcy have felt that tell-tale feeling of being followed when they go places in public. It’s not safe and Jane’s got research good enough to qualify for a noble prize nomination on the line. But with SHIELD’s funding out of the question, London being a bit of trashed war zone after an actual alien invasion, Eric and Jane make a deal to head back to where it all began. 

Which is fucking fantastic. Except for when it's not. Darcy’s long lost her scholarship by now for her last few credits but, Eric and Jane insist on part of their employment package that Darcy gets to finish school. Unfortunately, that doesn’t involve a job offer for her or a cost of living stipend, or pay for the loan she had to take out when SHIELD ruined her last semester of college, so it’s not long before she’s out job hunting in the college town. Her only caveat on finding a job is to avoid that bar that Tony Stark had famously bought, threatened to demolish, and then turned into an even more thriving college bar soon after all the Hulk incidents. There’s a god-awful Hulk and Iron Man theme going on inside that she just doesn’t want to be a part of. 

School has lost all it’s luster that it used to have. It’s hard to sit through her senior year Theories of International Relations class when she’s watching international relations collapse around the world through secret government agencies, billionaires playing rock’ em, sock em’ robots, and ‘heroes’ running amuck and fighting each other. 

It’s scary and unsurprising and the only thing that gets the fucked up mess that is superheroes, gods and science out of her head is her dead end waitressing job she works way too many hours at to pay her share of the bills which are never quite met and her credit cards inch closer to maxing out each day. And honestly, most days she’d prefer to be back in the middle of an alien invasion than trying to explain to a rich middle aged helicopter college mom, that salad is only gluten free if you don’t insist on adding breaded chicken and croutons. 

**-**

She’s still got intern status for Jane and Eric and it counts as her last elective for graduation. Then she finally graduates and gets a few more, unpaid hours free to help Jane. That’s how she’s the first one to know when Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries starts reaching out with possible job offers for Dr. Foster and Selvig. 

Neither Jane nor Eric are thrilled by it. The Avengers Initiative is to close to SHIELD which is to close to HYDRA and honestly they don’t really know how Stark Industries plays into all of it.  
Jane’s sorta, kinda interested, but not enough to say yes or no right away. 

But then the accords go public, and Stark signs them, and then almost dies in Siberia and the Avengers are in the wind, and Jane know that most of her funding is though the government in one shape or another and being part of Stark Industries might just give her more personal control over her work. Stark’s many things, but he doesn’t seem have a track record of stealing other people’s work as far as they can tell. And he’s got the lawyers and bank account to hide behind when others do try. 

It takes all of a weekend and one armored truck, curtesy of their snazzy new jobs working for Stark Industries to get the current lab all packed up. Culver University attempts to stop them, but Ms. Potts shuts that down rather ruthlessly. 

They meet Tony Stark on that Monday as they are un-packing the truck. 

He’s standing just inside one of the hallways of the compound as Jane and Darcy both struggle to carry one of the bigger pieces of equipment in. Darcy sees him first and almost drops her end of the equipment in surprise. In her defense it’s not everyday you run into Iron Man. 

But both she and Jane catch the equipment in time and put it down safely. 

Stark’s staring at them like he has no clue what they are doing in his house. 

Darcy’s staring at him, because despite the news reports, she hadn’t expected him to look as bad as he currently does. He’s holding himself stiffly, white medical bandages popping out of collar of the faded Metallica T-shirt he’s wearing. Darcy can hear him breathe even from feet away and it doesn’t sound healthy at all. He slides his sun glasses down his nose to look at Jane and her, and Darcy can see the blood shot eyes indicating alcohol or sleep deprivation and the deep bags underneath them. There are a few healing scabs on his face and hands. 

This is not what she was expecting from a self-proclaimed Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist. From Iron Man. 

He looks awful. 

Like barely alive awful. 

Jane’s bent over making sure her equipment is fine, paying their new boss no interest. Darcy kicks her friend, and Jane looks up annoyed. 

“What, Darcy?”

Darcy raises an eyebrow at that and uses both fingers to point at the still quiet Tony Stark staring at them. 

“You wanna say hi to our new boss, boss-lady?” She waves awkwardly at Stark. 

That doesn’t get much of a reaction from Tony Stark, except for him to tilt his head towards the ceiling and say, “Friday?” 

A voice pours out of no-where and every-where with a rather pleasing Irish tone. 

“Dr. Jane Foster and her assistant Darcy Lewis, I believe Ms. Potts made the executive decision to hire and house them here, sir. They’ll be working out of the third floor lab.”

“Thanks, Fri.”

“Of course, sir.”

Stark stops staring at the ceiling as the voice fades from the hallway and stares at them again. 

“The industrial elevator down the hall will fit that thing you are carrying. Ask Friday if you have any questions.” His voice is a bit sore sounding, almost as if talking hurts for him.  
He slides his sun-glasses back in place and walks off. 

Darcy gapes after him. Right, ok then.


	2. Chapter 2

The compound is massive, incredibly high tech, and looks like a dystopian futuristic nightmare half the time. There’s a gaping hole in one of the areas that goes down several floors, that disappears/ gets fixed about a week after The Vision moves back into the compound. No one tells Darcy what it’s from or why it took so long to fix. Like many things Darcy assumes it’s majorly above her pay grade. 

Most nights the compound is empty except for Darcy and Jane and this leaves Darcy with way too much free time on her hands. Especially in those fun insomniac hours late late at night. So she explores. Some living suites look comfy and well used. Books or video games left as if someone was going to come back to use them, clothing scattered across closets, socks half out of shoes. It doesn’t take long after stumbling on a half used drawing pad full of sketches of old time-y New York City Streets and a WWII clean-cut era version of the man that’s been splashed across the news as a terrorist for Darcy to figure out that these must have been the original Avengers living quarters. She ditches that source of entertainment very quickly after that. It’s like wandering through a ghost town and it gives her the creeps. 

FRIDAY the polite but rather judgmental AI, that doesn’t seem to get along with Jane, but the runs the compound helpfully points her towards the movie theater when she needs a new source of distraction. 

It becomes her nightly haven very quickly. The seats are comfy enough too sleep in, so she actually ends up passing out from exhaustion on enough occasions to get a few hours of semi decent sleep.   
Stark has every streaming service available, so Darcy spends a solid month binge watching every HBO show she’s every wanted to see but couldn’t afford the subscription for. But after a while that novelty wears off and she starts using the theater and movies as white noise to crochet or read instead. 

Her routine lasts until Tony Stark shows back up at the Compound. 

She’s doing the normal coffee run for herself and Jane one morning when she barrels into the lab only to see Jane about to ruin the best paid job either one of them could hope to get by back talking the man who owns the company they now work for. 

Darcy quickly heads her bestie off with promises of sweet sweet caffeine and science notes. 

“Hope you’re playing nice, boss lady.”

“She’s not. She won’t let me read her notes.”

Typical. Such a Jane move to trust no one that doesn’t include Darcy or Selvig. Completely warranted, of course. But of all other people who can equal Jane’s intelligence Stark has legally has signed away rights to claim Jane’s work as his own and made it so Jane can actually publish her work instead of being hidden away by shady secret alphabet soup agencies. She should at least try to play nice.   
But Stark’s looking straight at Darcy now, and she awkwardly adjusts the scarf she had finished at about three a.m. last night to keep from flailing her hands at how freakin’ cool it is that she lives in the same freakin’ building as Tony Stark. Also, the X-rated side of her brain is totally trying to revive the time in college she might of watched one of his sex tapes floating around the internet on a drunken dare. The totally mature, adult, loves her job side of her brain, that respects people’s boundaries and privacy is doing it’s best to beat those memories into submission. 

The third half of her brain (that proves she can’t math correctly) is able to manage actual words and actions. 

“Sorry about that Mr. Stark, Janey here has trust issues. Mostly in the shape of S.H. I.E.L.D.R.A But, I can compile a copy of everything for you by this afternoon?” She turns to look at him as she offers, to you know, do her actual job. He looks tired and still slightly beat up but less walking dead from the first time she had met him in person. 

“Nah, don’t stress about it, Lewis. I’ll get out of your way.” He says. 

She stares at him confused. Like she missed something along the line and, oh, he’s still talking. And backing out of the room. Like he doesn’t own it and he’s in the way. 

“It is Lewis, right?”

“Yep,” she pops the ‘p’ sound before continuing. “Darcy Lewis.”

He’s halfway out the door when he tosses, “Right, well, enjoy your science.” Over his shoulder vaguely in her direction before he’s out the door. 

*-*-*-*

Afternoon might have been a bit ambitious to promise, considering she finishes the previous week’s notes by almost ten that night. After stretching and closing the last binder she calls out to FRIDAY, 

“Hey, you know where I can drop these off so Mr. Stark can take a look at them?”

“Sir’s still awake and working in his lab. I can give you limited access to bring them to him.” 

“Sweet. Lead the way.”

She hears the lab before she gets close enough to be buzzed in. Vince Neil is belting out Take Me to the Top, the sound of the Crue’s best singer echoing past the security measures in place. FRIDAY has her pause outside of the main doors and she shuffles the binders in her arms as she hears the music cut off and she assumes FRIDAY’s filling in Stark why he’s being bothered at well past business hours. 

About a minute later the door slides open and gives Darcy her first glimpse into Stark’s private lab. It’s fucking amazing. Three possibly sentient robots turn to ‘stare’ at her as she walks in. One beeps in a way that can only be described as ‘excited’ and its adorable despite being as tall as her, and if it’s designed by Stark, probably smarter than her. She smiles at the three of them, much to their excitement. 

Tony Stark is staring a her as she walks closer, half hunched over a work bench filled with very obvious Iron Man pieces. The paint job alone would give it away. Holy fuck. 

He has a screwdriver in one hand and bloodshot eyes as he looks up as she approaches. 

“Sorry this took longer than I thought they would to compile, but FRIDAY said you were still up working so I’d thought I’d drop them off. Digital copies will be ready by the end of the week.”

She holds the binders out to him. 

He stares at her, blankly before turning to check the watch on his wrist. She’s well aware that she’s hours late. 

Darcy’s not sure what to do, because Stark’s still just staring at her, before FRIDAY saves her. 

“Sir doesn’t like to be handed things.”

“Oh, my bad.”

Darcy grasps at the excuse to move and find a clean spot to put the binders down on, where she won’t accidently crush the monetary equivalent of her college degree or you know put the free world in danger or something by breaking key Iron Man component parts. She finally finds a spot further down the table and plops the binders down.

“Sorry again that they took so long, Mr. Stark. Have a good night.”

She’s out of the room before she says anything stupid or just stands there awkwardly.


End file.
